The EU has agreed to impose travel bans and asset freezes on Ukrainian officials “with blood on their hands” but leave the door open for continued diplomacy it was decided yesterday.

Up to 20 interior ministry and security officials or “those responsible for violence and use of excessive force” will be targeted in what is being posited as a first message to the Ukrainian authorities.

The sanctions, hitting people like Vitaliy Zakharchenko, the interior minister, with visa bans and a freeze on their foreign bank accounts is likely to frighten the clique of wealthy oligarchs that surround President Yanukovych.

“The measures are an implied threat to all who close to the regime, including the Yanukovych family and the oligarchs who keep their wealth in cities like London. They will know that there will be no safe havens for them or their money if the politics breaks down,” said a diplomat from a large European country.

Last night Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said the sanctions were for those “with blood on their hands”.

William Hague, Foreign Secretary said the scale of the implementation of the sanctions would depend on developments.

“There is widespread horror in the EU as well as the United Kingdom at the scale of the loss of innocent life and the events of the last 48 hours,” he said.

Paul Ivan, an analyst for the European Policy Centre and an expert on EU sanctions, noted that senior Ukrainian officials, including senior military staff and the mayor of Kiev, had already resigned to avoid being listed for sanctions.

“There are people who realise that they have a lot to lose if they stay attached to the regime,” he said.

EU foreign ministers will additionally agree a ban on the sale of “equipment used for internal repression” to Ukraine but are expected to fall short of demanding an arms embargo.

“Ukraine takes part in peacekeeping missions and there is a view that it is better to keep the army out of it for now as it is not in the lead in Kiev,” said an official.

An arms embargo will be held in reserve, along with asset freezes for people close to the regime, as part of a “stepping or phasing” of sanctions in tandem with diplomatic efforts to broker a political agreement.

A majority of countries warned against moves led by Sweden to take punitive sanctions against Ukraine’s administration or the Yanukovych’s inner circle.

“Yanukovych must be left with a way out. We cannot make him a complete pariah or the purchase is lost and he is pushed into Russia’s arms,” said a European diplomat.

Diplomats and officials report that the holdings and assets of Ukraine’s oligarchy are well known, including the wealth of Oleksandr Yanukovych, the president’s son, whose fortune is estimated at £306 million ($510m).

Others believe that sanctions are too late as Ukraine slides into civil war, raising the spectre of another Yugoslavia on the EU’s doorstep.

Vasyl Filipchuk, a former Ukrainian diplomat dealing with EU relations, has called on the international community “to fully wake up and face up to the reality that much deeper engagement”.

"It is urgent that the EU decides to be prepared for every eventuality. The need to send peacekeepers might be obvious even in some hours," he wrote on the EUobserver website.